WARWICK, R.I. — This is a tale of an eggplant that was planted with care, harvested with love and delivered to a woman who has spent her life looking after the less fortunate.

WARWICK, R.I. — This is a tale of an eggplant that was planted with care, harvested with love and delivered to a woman who has spent her life looking after the less fortunate.

It is a story that wouldn’t happen without the good intentions of others, from the volunteers at Franklin Farm Community Garden, in Cumberland, to the volunteers at the West Bay Community Action food pantry.

The journey begins with the harvest.

Franklin Farm is a 65-acre oasis of open field and farmland in the middle of suburban sprawl. It’s where a group of volunteers cultivate an acre of yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers, which is given to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and area food pantries.

On a stormy Thursday, a handful of volunteers turn out to harvest the eggplant, a purple so deep it is almost black. They also pick Japanese eggplant, distinctively iridescent.

Since July 7, this modest acreage has produced at least 24,000 pounds of food, more than half of which goes to the Food Bank.

The garden is truly a community affair: middle-school children plant the seeds and families pick the produce. The volunteers say they are drawn to the farm because of its singular beauty, especially in August, when the tomatoes begin to ripen and the squash hangs heavy on the vines.

“It’s the beauty of the garden itself,” says volunteer Dave Gumbley, of Cumberland. “That and doing something that a lot of people benefit from.”

A brief shower darkens the fields, which are rife with lavender. A few chickens poke about the hen house. The volunteers walk up and down the rows of eggplant, tossing them from one person to another, who puts them in boxes.

Andrew Domenico, of Lincoln, was there with his wife, Kelly, and two sons, Liam, 8, and Wynston, 6.

“It teaches the boys about the importance of volunteering,” he says, “and that this food is going to people that need it.”

On that evening, the volunteers collect 28 pounds of eggplant, which they weigh and record in a weathered outbuilding.

The following day, a Subaru wagon drives up to the loading dock of the Food Bank in Cranston. A couple of the Franklin Farm volunteers, Chip Thurlow and his wife, Pam, unload box after box of vegetables onto a pallet.

The food is then weighed — 655 pounds — and moved by forklift into a walk-in refrigerator, which is already packed with potatoes and carrots. On any given week, the Food Bank delivers 40,000 pounds of fresh produce to more than 160 agencies across the state.

“We have a huge focus on distributing healthy food,” said Cindy Elder, a spokeswoman for the Food Bank. “We teach families how to cook using fresh foods and how to stretch their budgets using a plant-based diet.”

On Tuesday, the box of eggplant from Franklin Farm is trucked to a food pantry in the Buttonwoods neighborhood of Warwick.

Inside the pantry, fresh vegetables are displayed in open boxes, and rows of canned tomatoes, soup and fruit are stocked on the shelves. There are also loaves of fresh bread, pastries, even cheesecake.

Maura Higgins and her personal attendant, Gina Paliotti, walk in the door. Higgins, who is 63 and frail, suffers from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Her arm, badly broken four years ago, is in a sling.

On Tuesday, Higgins fills her cart with carrots and zucchini from the pantry. She pauses to admire the eggplant.

“They’re gorgeous,” she says.

She picks one that has a tiny protuberance jutting out like an arm. When she goes home, she plans on making eggplant parmesan — baked, not fried.

As a young woman, Higgins said she helped found a living skills program for Rhode Island women who were recently imprisoned. After moving to San Diego, she opened a storefront for homeless teenagers, a safe haven from the streets.

Higgins returned to Rhode Island seven years ago to help care for her sister and brother-in-law, who were dying of cancer.

Four years ago, she tripped and fell, shattering both arms. She spent nearly two years in the hospital after an infection set in.

Higgins’ multiple illnesses became so severe that she had to give up her work. She misses it to this day.

Now, Higgins is on the receiving end after a lifetime of giving. She admits it isn’t easy.

“It’s a reversal,” she says. “I’ve given and now people are giving to me.”